Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Little House in the Big Woods report

We had a lovely time talking about the Little House books this week. Most in the group had read the books (and we had a few very devoted fans), but one person never had! Most everyone enjoyed the book immensely, though not very much seemed to happen in the first book. It was remarked upon how surprising it was that nothing bad happened in LHitBW, and some readers really held their breath over this, or were disappointed by the lack of drama. But a real sense of comfort seems to be drawn from the books, so perhaps they are calming in their lack of excitement?

As our icebreaker, we discussed childhood book memories of food. Favorites included:

Bread and Jam for Francis
Little House books (DJ went so far as to heat potatoes to carry to school in cold weather)
Turkish delight from the Narnia books
The Lunchbox Tree from the Oz books (including sliced tongue, an apple and a ham sandwich)
The Giant Jam Sandwich
Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls - especially the Butterscotch Brownies
Blueberries for Sal

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of all the delicious food! We had a nice spread though:

Dawn - pickled beets and veg mix (made by Prema)
Leann - Salad
DJ - Meatballs
Katie - roasted chicken, stuffing and gravy and tiny Snickers bars (because that is what her and her sister fantasized bringing to the Wilders if they could time travel back).
Heather - homemade pork and beans
Julie - pork chops marinated in Makers Mark.
Sheri – smoked trout and salmon (both fish she caught herself, too!) and crackers
Karen – homemade ricotta cheesecake and dried apple and honey dip
Katie - Hoecakes (some wheat, some corn) and maple syrup

Folks shared Little House related books:
The Little house cookbook : frontier foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic stories
The Laura Ingalls Wilder country cookbook by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little house in the Ozarks : a Laura Ingalls Wilder sampler : the rediscovered writings

A couple of recent Little House projects came up:

Beyond Little House America's most comprehensive site dedicated to the life, literature, and many homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
The Wilder Life: my adventures in the lost world of Little house on the prairie by Wendy McClure

Also recently there have been a huge number of memoirs from actresses in the series:
Prairie tale : a memoir by Melissa Gilbert
The way I see it : a look back at my life on Little house by Melissa Sue Anderson
Confessions of a prairie bitch : how I survived Nellie Oleson and learned to love being hated by Alison Arngrim


And because someone mentioned it, here is a YouTube video of the destruction of Walnut Grove (mixed together with other LHotP intense images)!